By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Director General of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Ms Patience Oniha, has said the current debt management strategy would be retained in the coming year.
Ms Oniha made this disclosure during a press conference last Monday in Abuja.
“There is a debt management strategy that determines how we structure our debts and the strategy will run to 2019.
“It’s one to thing to approve the debt but another to implement with an objective in mind.
“This seeks to achieve a debt stock that is prudent and judicious use of the funds.
“We want to borrow as low cost as possible and the debts are sustainable,” the nation’s chief debt manager told newsmen at the briefing.
The DMO boss noted that government had since recognised the need to reduce borrowing and therefore, slowed down the amount being borrowed to finance federal budget.
“Since 2017, the level of borrowings as provided in the annual budget has been reducing.
“In 2017, it was N2.3 trillion, in 2018 it is N1.64 trillion and in the draft budget for 2019 is N1.7 trillion so the governed is mindful of the borrowings,” she said, adding that borrowing is guiding by several laws and so it has to be approved by the National Assembly.
During the briefing, Ms Oniha said her agency has refunded N900 billion owed to domestic creditors by federal government in 2018.
“In total, we have refunded N900 billion into the market that is available for lending to the private sector.
“It has also supported our foreign reserves and has brought down interest rates,” she said.
Speaking further, the DMO chief said based on approvals from executive and legislature, “we raised $3 billion in Eurobonds which we have used to repay some of our domestic debts.
“The Sukuk was used to fund roads construction and we have issued another one which was 133 per cent subscribed.”
She put the total amount of debts inherited from previous administrations about N2.6 trillion out of which N700 billion was related to personnel cost, leaving a balance of N1.9 trillion.
“In this category, there is refund to state governments, oil marketers, major contractors, small contractors etc.
“The government processed all the approvals all the same and the government will issue promissory notes and that means the debt stock will increase.
“But it won’t mean that the present government borrowed all of that N1.9 trillion. So, the public debt figure will go up by N1.9 trillion. “Currently we are working on the debts for oil marketers and refund to state governments,” she noted.
